State Dept. Goes To War With Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly

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State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf ripped into Fox News host Bill O’Reilly over his criticism of the agency’s spokesperson, Jen Psaki.

During Wednesday’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” O’Reilly bashed Psaki and said she lacked the “gravitas” necessary for the position.

“With all due respect, and you don’t have to comment on this, that women looks way out of her depth over there,” he said. “Just the way she delivers, it just doesn’t look like she has the gravitas for that job.”

In the segment, Fox reporter James Rosen complained about Psaki’s responses to his questions during State Department briefings.

O’Reilly played a clip in which Rosen asked Psaki why President Obama characterized the United States’ plan for combating ISIS in three different ways during a speech in Estonia, according to Politico. Obama said the U.S. would “destroy and degrade” ISIS, “roll them back” and “shrink ISIS sphere of influence until it is a manageable problem,” according to Rosen.

“Well, I think it’s important for everybody, including people at home who watch Fox, to look at the context of the remarks that the president made,” Psaki responded, adding that Fox has “a desire to twist words or take things out of context.”

Watch part of the segment:

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Notable Replies

  1. I have a hint for you Jimmy - most intelligent people don’t need to hear the exact same phrasing to get the idea. That’s for your audience.

  2. The “Republican”/RWNJ war on women continues…

  3. Avatar for byteme byteme says:

    Expect Fox & Friends to complain that this was Obama’s latest “distraction” from what’s really important which is… uh… I forgot.

  4. Wow, I just watched half of this and now I feel filthy. What a bunch of idiots. Thank God these folks don’t run our foreign policy…

  5. I would love to see a survey undertaken in which people are asked “Do you believe the Republicans are capable of original ideas thought up independently or do you think they derive their strategy by waiting to see what Obama does and then saying they want the opposite of that?”

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